Book summaryThe Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental
breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a
magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed
suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and
perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a
woman's descent into insanity.

It's been three days since I finished this book, but
I've been pretty
much hesitating to write this review. I wanted to gather my thoughts,
which were in such disarray after reading this book. Besides, I was
still imagining what life had been like for Esther Greenwood, and hence
Sylvia Plath, wondering how after getting "cured", the author
apparently relapsed and took her life.

This
is the story of Esther Greenwood's breakdown, her deepest fears and how
she attempted to recover from it. In Sylvia Plath's words,

The pressures of the fashion magazine world which seems increasingly
superficial and artificial, the return home to the dead summer world of
a suburb of Boston. Here the cracks in her [the heroine, Esther
Greenwood’s] nature which had been held together as it were by the
surrounding pressures of New York widen and gape alarmingly. More and
more her warped view of the world around—her own vacuous domestic life,
and that of her neighbors—seems the one right way of looking at things.

My thoughts
Right from page one, I was able to identify with Esther Greenwood. I
did go through a lengthy phase, some time back, when I questioned every thing I did,
when I wondered if I was on the right path or career and whether I
wasn't just a robot going along a path charted long ago, without giving
it much thought.

Esther begins to first acknowledge her doubts when her
manager has a quick reprimanding one-to-one with her.

All
my life I'd told myself studying and reading and writing and working
like mad was what I wanted to do, and it actually seemed to be true, I
did everything well enough and got all A's, and by the time I made it
to college nobody could stop me.

Her manager asks her:

"What do you have in mind after you graduate?"

What
I always thought I had in mind was getting some big scholarship to
graduate school or a grant to study all over Europe, and then I thought
I'd be a professor and write books of poems or write books of poems and
be an editor of some sort. Usually I had these plans on the tip of my
tongue.

"I don't really know," I heard myself say. I
felt a deep shock, hearing myself say that, because the minute I said
it, I knew it was true.

Sylvia Plath slowly sets the stage for Esther's
descent into "madness", in the first few chapters, where she gets
increasingly suspicious about others' actions and increasingly
disregards her work. During the one month at the job in New York, she tries to
grapple with boyfriend issues, girlfriend issues and also with her
image. She vacillates between affection for her acquaintances and
scorn towards them. She slowly starts imagining more fanciful scenarios.

Once her internship is over, and she is back home, her
schizophrenic actions become more obvious. The much-conveyed
impression through her illness is that everyone is out to get her. As I was reading this,
another book that came to mind is Wally Lamb'sShe's Come Undone, whose protagonist, Dolores is similarly depressed and doubtful of other people's intents.

I know this book is described as Esther's
"descent into madness". But although she did have schizophrenic
thoughts, I did not find them so severe as to call it "madness", or
"insanity". Maybe I am taking it a little too literally, but that's the
surmise I got. Of course, to go from one extreme of being very focused
on her course, to the other of being convinced that she won't write again is indeed
a huge negative transition, but I didn't feel that what she went through warranted a tag of
insanity.

Other than that jarring note, I found this book very impactful. It
paralleled Sylvia Plath's life during the six-month crash, including
her well-publicized disappearance, subsequent discovery, and consequent
hospitalization for shock treatment. The shock treatment
episodes made me particularly cringe. It felt almost inhuman reading
about the existence of such practices. Sure, it was a long time ago,
but nevertheless, attempting to shock a person into sanity felt almost
barbaric to me.

Sylvia
Plath eloquently captured the distraught felt by the victim, who looks
at the world as if through a bell jar - thereby causing the warped view
of his/her surroundings. What is particularly chilling are these lines, which almost seem like a self-prediction:

How did I know that someday—at college, in Europe,
somewhere, anywhere—the bell jar, with its stifling distortions,
wouldn’t descend again?

Overall,
I enjoyed this book. It is always interesting to look at a world
through the eyes of someone mentally challenged. What does such a
person see? What does he/she think? The reader always believes the
narrator. So when you read first-person beliefs about others out to
harass you or others gossiping about you in a corner, it is definitely
moving and harrowing.

What did you think?Have you read this book?
I'd like to know what you thought about it. Please leave your review
link in the comments, or a brief opinion, if you hadn't reviewed it.

Diane, I agree, some portions really get you thinking and sometimes shock you too.

Eva, I hope you get to read it. It's definitely worth it. I've not read any of Plath's poetry though, but I'd love to read them sometime.

Aarti, it's hardly difficult actually. But it jumps from scene to scene, sequentially of course. I felt it more memoir-ish. Since they are written entirely as per the protagonist's knowledge. If there is something Esther doesn't know the name of, she will only describe it but won't later provide the name. So the reader goes guessing.

Eva, I should read that then! And yep, Aarti and you could read it together! That will be a great way to kick some discussions as well! Have you also read "Girl, Interrupted"? Apparently, it is very similar to The Bell Jar and much recommended too.

Confession: I know this book is considered a classic, but I've never even touched it -- let alone taken the time to sit down and see what it's really about! But I read your review from start to finish; it sounds like a very compelling read. Great review!

I read this book a long time ago, and it's one that I just couldn't remember the specifics. Thank you so much for your detailed review! You not only brought the details back to the surface of my memory, but made me want to read it again.